Heirlooms and avatars

Coffee Table 1
Originally uploaded by Mac44.

I've just spent the evening admiring our new coffee table. Well, no - I admit I watched some telly as well, but kept glancing back at our latest acquisition, which we bought last week in the Craft House Gallery, The Hirsel Country Park, Coldstream. It's the work of a Borders craftsman, Ian Hunter, and it's made from a single piece of elm burr. We weren't looking to buy anything - but when we saw it it took us all of five minutes to decide that a totally unique piece of furniture would be exciting.

On another tack entirely, I was seduced by this post of Edublogger's into signing up for Second Life. As an attempt to meet up with anyone I knew it was a total failure - I think I took too long finding out how to get from one place to another, and arrived in an empty complex 90 minutes after the meeting was scheduled to begin. I may find out some day what went on - but in the meantime will need to resist with considerable ferocity the temptation to waste any more time in a parallel universe.

Suddenly a table made with an ancient piece of wood seems very, very real.